Market employees, who play a role as at least as much as healthcare workers in the fight against the coronavirus epidemic, make great efforts for citizens to supply food under all conditions. While millions of citizens close to their homes against coronavirus risk, minimum wage market personnel continue to work. Employees who could not fill 43 hours of weekly work due to the curfew are now forced to work in shifts exceeding 10 hours a day.
Since the first cases of coronavirus that emerged in 2020 March 11, Turkey, 86 thousand 306 cases, whereas the 2 thousand 17 citizens lost their lives. Millions of citizens were forced into their homes as part of measures to combat coronavirus. While it was underlined by experts that it should not be allowed to go out to the street unless it is necessary to prevent the epidemic spreading further, market employees who were employed with thousands of minimum wages had to work their health under difficult conditions.
Market employees, who continue to work at risk of coronavirus, have to work overtime due to the curfew. The number of chain stores across Turkey was likely to find about 27 thousand, and thousands of cashiers working in these markets, butchers and department employees, was doing 43 hours of overtime per week 8 hours per day before the outbreak. Due to the curfew, which was first announced on April 11-12, and then on April 18-19, the market employees could not fill their weekly 43 hours. For this reason, market employees are forced to work 2 and a half hours a day.
They are being left to do too much
Even weekly leaves of market employees are determined according to the curfew announced by the Ministry of Interior. This week, it is announced that the curfew will be 4 days due to April 23 National Sovereignty and Children's Day, while the markets will be open for the first two days of the ban. Market employees, who will be working overtime because of the first days of Ramadan, are thinking about how to go to workplaces due to the ban on public transportation. On the other hand, market employees who are forced to work overtime are not sufficiently protected against coronavirus. While taking precautions with only mask and disinfectant by market officials, even the social distance rule can be ignored due to the density of the customers. Some market employees serve the houses.